“Our classrooms are aging, but
we also need to address our new reality,” he said. “Classrooms of the 21st century should not only address students’ technical needs, but the reality of climate change.”
First: Water damage inside a classroom at Pacific Elementary School in Santa Cruz on Nov. 14, 2023. Photo by Clara Mokri for CalMatters Second: A rusted roof at Pacific Elementary School in Santa Cruz on Nov. 14, 2023. Photo by Clara Mokri for CalMatters Third: A building used as a storage facility boarded up and no longer in use at the Keyes Elementary School in Keyes on Nov. 15, 2023. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local Fourth: Construction sites in the hallways of the Keyes Elementary School in Keyes on Nov. 15, 2023. Multiple projects keep going on at the campus due to a lack of funds to continue. Photos by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local
Unlike most other states, California does not have a permanent funding stream for repairing school facilities. Money comes from state and local bonds, which generate finite amounts of money, usually through property taxes. Although California has lavished money on schools in the past few years, most of that money is earmarked for efforts to help students recover from the pandemic. It can’t be spent on construction.
Typically, larger, urban and more affluent districts, which also tend to be more liberal, have an easier time raising funds. Not only are voters more likely to approve new taxes – the usual way that districts repay bonds – but property values are higher, thereby bringing in more money. In addition, districts can qualify for matching funds from the state, so “the more you have, the more you get,” said Julien Lafortune, a researcher at the Public Policy Institute of California.
In 2022, for example, the Mill Valley School District in Marin County was able to raise $194 million through a bond that taxed local property owners just 2.6 cents per $100 of a property’s assessed value – in a city where the average home price hovers around $2 million.
Meanwhile, the same year in rural San Lucas, south of King City in Monterey County, the school district tried passing a bond that would have taxed property owners more than twice that rate, but because the average home price is below $300,000 the bond would have raised only $3.6 million. Regardless, voters said no.
“The system is inequitable. More (school facilities) money goes to higher-income students than lower-income students,” Lafortune said. “There’s an understanding in California that we shouldn’t have these big inequities when it comes to books, supplies, resources. There’s all these efforts to correct inequities. And yet that’s not something that exists for school facilities.”
The state has a hardship fund for school districts that can’t cover their share of the matching funds. But the process to get hardship money is complicated, time-consuming and can be overly burdensome for rural superintendents who may also be teaching classes, driving the bus and serving lunch.
In a recent report, the Public Policy Institute of California recommends that California survey the condition of the state’s thousands of school buildings and adopt a system that ensures the neediest districts get more money.
Although both bills in the Legislature include tweaks to make funding more equitable, they don’t go far enough, said Jeff Vincent, co-founder of the Center for Cities and Schools at UC Berkeley. Nearly 40% of California’s school districts can’t raise enough through local bonds — those that manage to pass them — to cover necessary repair costs. Any statewide bond should include significant aid for rural, small and low-income districts.
“Districts in areas with lower property values are really struggling,” Vincent said. “This means that children in more disadvantaged communities tend to have schools in a greater state of disrepair. … It’s not just a matter of aesthetics. It’s an issue of environmental health and safety.”
Better facilities, higher achievement
The stakes are high: students whose schools are in good condition perform 5% to 17% higher on standardized tests, are less likely to be suspended, and are more likely to attend school regularly, according to the California Department of Education. The reason, according to researchers, is that students focus better and have more pride in their school when buildings are comfortable and safe, with good air ventilation and temperature control.
Eric Gross, superintendent at Pacific Elementary School District in Santa Cruz County, has noticed that firsthand. For at least two decades, the roof has leaked so badly that staff have had to put trash cans in classrooms and hallways to collect rainwater during storms. Two engineers have recommended that a classroom be condemned, but the state took years before it finally approved the project earlier this month.
A bucket catches water due to a leak in a sixth-grade classroom at Pacific Elementary School in Santa Cruz on Nov. 14, 2023. According to Superintendent Eric Gross, the ceiling leaks even on foggy mornings.Clara Mokri for CalMatters
“The other day a teacher came to me and said, ‘The siding in my room is rotting.’ I said yeah, I know. She said, ‘OK, just wanted to make sure you knew.’ … Our staff is great but there’s a level of demoralization. It’s frustrating but everyone just accepts it,” Gross said.
He’s come to rely on parent volunteers to perform basic maintenance at the 150-student school in the town of Davenport. Parents replace broken door handles, prune blackberry bushes, fix broken windows and build benches.
“On the first day of school I tell the families, there are no passengers on this ship. Everyone rows,” he said.
Small districts like his desperately need more assistance from the state, he said. Not just more money, but help managing large projects. Gross is too busy running the school to hire consultants, negotiate with contractors, submit the reams of required paperwork or oversee major projects.
“I can teach your kids to read, but I am not a construction manager,” he said. “The state needs to step in to help superintendents like me, because we don’t have the time or expertise to do this on our own.”
Dry rot and gophers
Keyes Union School District, where Brasil has been superintendent for seven years, is a patchwork of deferred maintenance and jerry-rigging. Any money for repairs is long gone: The last time local voters passed a school construction bond was in 2005, and the state fund is depleted, as well. The elementary school gym, for example, doubles as a cafeteria, which means staff haul dozens of folding tables in and out daily. The middle school gym was never finished, so it lacks seating and locker rooms; students change in small, stuffy portables across the playground. Some of the roofs are 40 years old. A decade ago, an electrical malfunction sparked a pre-dawn fire in the Head Start building, engulfing it in flames.
First: The gym that also acts as a cafeteria for students at the Keyes Elementary School in Keyes on Nov. 15, 2023. Second: The dug-up sports field at Barbara Spratling Middle School in Keyes on Nov. 15, 2023. The field was dug up after an invasion of gopher destroyed the grass resulting in the school funding a project to fix it. Photos by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local
But for the past two years, Keyes’ most pressing issue has been gophers. Lured by the adjacent almond orchards, gophers invaded the middle school soccer field — one of only two fields in the town and shared with the community. The field was so pocked with divots and holes that anyone running across it risked an ankle injury or worse. The only way to make it usable again was to dig it up, regrade it and install new sod.
Brasil didn’t have many financing options. The state rejected the district’s request for repair money, so it had to borrow $700,000 to complete the project.
“I wanted kids to have a nice, safe place to play, to run, to blow off steam after the pandemic. I would have rather spent that money on tutoring or after-school programs, but to me, this felt like the most important thing,” Brasil said.
Dr. Helio Brasil stands in the hallway next to the construction tape for the project on new classrooms at the Keyes Elementary School in Keyes on Nov. 15, 2023.Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local
Jeff Roberts, superintendent of Plumas Lake Elementary School District in Yuba County, has a different problem. His school buildings are in good shape, but the district is growing so fast he needs to build an entire new school — or risk cutting programs and increasing class sizes.
In the early 2000s, the district had only 100 students. But due to a housing boom in the region, he anticipates 2,200 students by 2030. The amount of money needed to build a new school is daunting: a new school will cost $70 million to $100 million. The district can only raise $18 million through a local bond. Developers’ fees will bring in an additional $20 million, but that still leaves the district with only half the money it needs. Roberts is relying on the state to pass a new school construction bond so he can apply for the remainder of the funds.
“I went into education for teaching and learning. Now, what I spend most of my time on is worrying about housing students,” Roberts said. “If we can’t figure this out, we’re going to have to cut things like P.E., art, music to make room for students. It’s extremely frustrating because we know that’s not what’s best for students’ education.”